


Translation

by Unda



Category: Venom (Movie 2018)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-23
Updated: 2018-10-23
Packaged: 2019-08-06 13:00:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,430
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16388201
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Unda/pseuds/Unda
Summary: A musing on the name Venom for a species that definitely didn't come here speaking English.





	Translation

Eddie has his feet up on the table, his laptop on his legs as he types hurriedly away. It’s curled across the outside of his shins, tendrils leading back into Eddie and also wrapped around the remote. It clicks the channel change button again, partly because what was on was boring but also because every time it’s changed the feeling of irritation flares up in Eddie and  _ that _ is entertaining in itself. Eddie has to work, it knows that, and it’s not like the chase of it is dull when they’re actually out there doing it. Even when he’s just interviewing people it’s a kick to feel the very real hunting instincts Eddie has, a rare time of him being bloodthirsty. 

 

Research, though? UGH. 

 

Still Eddie has explained that work doesn’t get done without research and without work there’s no food and comfortable place to live so it must be suffered. Doesn’t mean the symbiote has to suffer silently though. 

 

For some reason this channel is making Eddie’s agitation spike more so it pays attention. 

 

“-you could never leave me, you  _ bastard _ .” one on the screen says. 

 

“No, Maria, for I am not your husband. I am- his  _ twin _ !” the other says dramatically. 

 

“Change the channel already, there’s no way you understand this so switch it already. His voice so grating!” Eddie groans. 

 

“I know what being married is.” the symbiote grouses. The two of them had talked about the concept before and it’s… nice. Earth has some nice ideas despite a lot of bad ones around. 

 

“You… what?” Eddie asks, lifting the laptop and squinting down at the mass of it down on his shins. 

 

Eddie is confused and that’s catching, now they both are. 

 

“You understand what they’re saying?” Eddie asks, nodding towards the TV. 

 

“You don’t.” it realises. The words are different to Eddie’s own. 

 

“How do you speak Spanish and I don’t?” he asks. 

 

It conveys the emotional equivalent of a shrug. 

 

“We learn from hosts, you’re not the first human I’ve been in.” 

 

“Huh. I guess I never really thought about it, your English is perfect you just don’t get human things all that well. There’s a culture and species barrier but I didn’t think about language.” Eddie muses. His mind is ticking along with ideas, questions, things that it doesn’t quite read but the shape of them is identifiable as such. It can’t  _ read _ Eddie’s thoughts as such, only ones directed right at it and that skill is new and often it’s like trying to hear someone shouting into the wind. Talking out loud is more reliable. 

 

Curiosity dosed with caution buzzes in Eddie as he wets his lips and speaks slowly, carefully. 

 

“So ‘Venom’ isn’t your actual name, not in whatever you spoke before you first got in a human. What is it then?”

 

It doesn’t answer, instead slides below Eddie’s skin again and curls around his insides warm and comfortable before wrapping around the startled human’s outsides to be Venom proper again, to be them. 

 

“Human names are odd. You share them with other people and part of it shows who you belong to. You get one word to you and it’s not even one you choose.” they say. 

 

_ Some people choose their names. _ Eddie counters from inside. A foolish defense. 

 

“We needed to be understood, you need a name and face or else humans get dumber. One word names. We went for the closest we had. So Riot…” they trail off and try to cling tighter around Eddie’s brain and force the idea through. 

 

Mayhem, violence, incitement to rise up and defeat, a pack working to a violent goal. 

 

_ Riot, I get it. And Venom? _

 

They becomes it again, releasing Eddie back on the couch and sinking under the skin once more. Taking comfort in the warm beat of his heart and pull of his lungs. Names have meaning, even on Earth and it likes the ones it has here so far. 

 

Symbiote, from symbiotic. Adjective: denoting a mutually beneficial relationship between different people or groups. It’s accurate, Eddie keeps it alive and protected from the toxic effects of the atmosphere and in return Eddie  _ stays _ alive from everything else. Protection for them both. 

 

Venom, noun: a poisonous substance secreted by animals such as snakes, spiders, and scorpions and typically injected into prey or aggressors by biting or stinging. A name that’s a show of aggression a sign it means business, can fight and defend. 

 

Parasite, though, it hates that. A parasite is too weak to survive alone, certainly too weak to thrive and so latches on to something bigger and better. Sucking it dry of resources eventually resulting in disaster for both of them, parasites usually stick around to reproduce the next batch of their terrible line but they often doom themselves in the process. Weak and terrible, that’s what a parasite is. Needing Eddie to filter the air for it, give it a place to be safe in and knowing that if Eddie does not eat enough or allow it to feed then it will start eating Eddie, well, the word hits painfully close. 

 

Of course Eddie sometimes uses that word, but it calls Eddie awful things sometimes too. It only tolerates it from Eddie because oftentimes it can feel the rise of fondness in him at the term. But even then sometimes it makes Eddie take it back. 

 

Not a parasite. 

 

“Hey, what’s… are you in there?” Eddie asks, patting gently at his chest. 

 

If it had eyes to roll right now, it would. Oh, wait, it does. It rolls Eddie’s and ignores the startled yelp from him at the movement. 

 

“Fine, if it’s a touchy subject I can drop it.” Eddie grumbles but that stings too. It doesn’t need sparing from Eddie’s  _ words _ like some weakling! 

 

Still… reluctance. 

 

Reaching around Eddie’s brain again it forces its name in there. 

 

A toxic, dark thing. When injected into anyone or anything it gets worse, a poison, a corrupting toxin. 

 

It has tried to feel powerful about that name before, to wield it like how ‘Venom’ as a name feels. Like something dark and dangerous to be used ruthlessly on enemies. But that’s not how it sits on it, not how others use it either. The name becomes pejorative, not a boast but an insult to it. It is lucky that English has the word Venom because if not that then its name is only a half step to Parasite. 

 

Eddie isn’t the only loser around, after all. 

 

Oh, shit. It hung on far too long there, broadcasting its feelings about the damn actual name instead of just sending it and being gone. It slinks as much of it outside of Eddie’s head as possible and curls around his ribs. It doesn’t want to feel what Eddie is feeling now, nor the vague outline of his thoughts. 

 

“I’ve felt like that before too.” Eddie says, his voice rumbling in his chest. 

 

Hesitantly it reconnects with Eddie’s brain. He feels sad, regretful. 

 

“You know what I did to my life before, right? I had all that going for me and I just had to ruin everything, like I’m toxic to everyone and me too.” Eddie says softly. 

 

Yeah. That’s about right, he knows. It’s not the same but he gets it. 

 

“Are you ok with the name Venom after that, then?” Eddie questions, hesitant, cringe prepared as if he’s been doing a bad thing this whole time. Waiting for the fall. 

 

“Venom is different.” it says, sliding out of Eddie’s skin to be back on his legs again. 

 

“Ok.” he nods. 

 

There’s a pause and then Eddie’s gaze flicks to the TV once more. 

 

“You’re missing your show.” 

 

It tuts and settles back down to watch the TV. Earth definitely deserved to be spared for inventing TV. Eddie begins to type again and his mind switches to work mode once more. 

 

“You know, you could translate for me at work.” Eddie says thoughtfully. 

 

“People who work get paid.” it says, peeking over the laptop screen. 

 

“I could get a burger for you after or something.” Eddie offers. 

 

“The all you can eat place.” it insists and a look of panic flashes over Eddie’s face. 

 

“They’ll bar us, and all you can eat for you isn’t all you can eat for me. I’ll explode.” Eddie protests. 

 

It just cackles meanly and returns to the apparently unintelligible program, knowing full well that sooner or later Eddie will crack and ask for that help and it will be a sweet meal after that indeed. 


End file.
